Shawn Casselberry's Blog
Real Hope For Haiti / 02.02.10, 11:46 AM
Haiti has been on many of our hearts and minds over the past couple weeks. Since the earthquake, my inbox has exploded with emails from dozens and dozens of organizations appealing for support in their relief and rebuilding efforts in Haiti. Churches and youth groups across the country have been asking for special offerings and raising money to assist those most affected. Television ads and celebrities have called our attention to those suffering in Haiti asking for our generous donations.
And as a country, we have responded.
George Clooney and Haitian-born Wyclef Jean helped raise $61 million during their “Hope for Haiti” telethon. The Red Cross announced this week they have raised $200 million in aid relief for Haiti. I heard that one of our Mission Year churches collected $4000 in one offering during a “Save Haiti” service. Many of our Mission Year alumni and staff have been giving to our EAPE partner organizations: Beyond Borders and Haiti Partners (www.eape.org). It is so encouraging to see such an outpouring of concern and generosity from all corners of our nation.
Although it’s amazing to see the response, it makes me wonder why it takes a tragedy for us to notice those suffering around us? Haiti has long been the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. And as one of our closest neighbors, why is it only now that Haiti is drawing our attention and resources.
The Onion had a tongue in cheek article titled, “Massive Earthquake Reveals Entire Island Civilization Called ‘Haiti’ (www.theonion.com/content/news/massive_earthquake_reveals_entire).” It does seem like we are just now discovering Haiti. Likewise, Hurricane Katrina was the first time for many Americans to see the abject poverty and economic disparities in our own nation’s urban communities.
Natural disasters help us see what we are typically able to ignore. Why is it so hard for us to see the poor as victims except when they are victims of a natural disaster? It is much harder for us to see how the poor are devastated through economic forces, public policies, and social neglect. The loss of manufacturing jobs due to economic policies in the 90s had catastrophic effects on urban communities like Chicago and Camden (See David Ranney’s book Global Decisions, Local Collisions: Urban Life in the New World Order). White Flight left many of our urban communities of color with little resources, employment options, political power and basic services. Discriminatory housing programs and unequal school funding policies have led to major disparities in opportunity between wealthy and poor communities. Chicago Public Radio recently reported that the majority of section 8 housing vouchers go to four neighborhoods: Austin, Lawndale, Englewood, and Roseland-neighborhoods already crowded with high concentrations of low-income residents (and also neighborhoods Mission Year teams have been). These policies keep wealthy communities wealthy and poor communities poor. It is easier (or lazier) for us to justify the plight of the poor as poor individual choices rather than examining the forces that are destroying their lives on a daily basis.
Another part of the problem is that we are charity sprinters. We give in moments of crisis for a specific cause when it is utterly necessary and when it is forefront in our collective conscience. After the news coverage dies down and after we tire of the appeals, Haiti will soon fade from our memory just like New Orleans did. Or the rich and powerful will find ways to profit on the rebuilding efforts just like they did in New Orleans. See, charity is short-term, a sprint, while justice is long-term, a marathon. And even though we can have a strong start (Red Cross raised $1 billion for Katrina Relief), if we are not committed to long-term justice, our efforts will only yield temporary relief and not lasting change.
I believe the real Hope for Haiti will not happen this month or this year, but in the next three, five, or ten years. I think this is why we need to think about living in places of need and not just giving to places of need. I love how Mission Year responded to Katrina by sending a delegation of staff and alumni to live in New Orleans and then followed up for the last three years with sending teams of yearlong volunteers there. It’s one thing when you send a check to a place of need and quite another when you plant yourself in a place of need. Instead of staying removed and unaware of the poor, we need to consider living with them and making their struggle ours. That way, justice becomes a lifestyle and not a one-time gift.
Mission Year is not waiting for a natural disaster to hit Chicago, Philly, Camden, Wilmington, Atlanta, Houston, Charlotte, or New Orleans. We are planting ourselves there and committing to work for the long haul.
Won’t you join us!
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